1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, a recording method, and a computer program and, in particular, to a recording apparatus, a recording method, and a computer program for allowing a user to select whether to convert data of a still image to moving image data when an optical disk is finalized.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital versatile disks (DVDs) having a large storage capacity include a DVD-R (recordable) permitting only one-time recording, and a DVD-RW (rewritable) and a DVD-RAM (random-access memory), each disk type permitting a plurality of times of recording. Also available are DVD+R and DVD+RW disks, as non-standard disks of the DVD forum.
To play back data recorded on a variety of types of disks on a playback only DVD player, a finalize process is required. The finalize process is an arrangement process for arranging, from an inner circle of the DVD, a lead-in region, a universal disk format (UDF) region, a video manage (VMG) region, a data region, and a lead-out region in order to organize data recorded on a DVD in a data format compatible with a playback only DVD-ROM (read-only memory). The data format replayable on the playback only DVD player is generally referred to as a DVD video format.
When the data of the still image and the data of the moving image are recorded on the DVD, only the data of the moving image is finalized in a typical finalize process (i.e., data converted into a format replayable on a DVD player) while the data of the still image is not finalized. Users can view the moving image recorded on the DVD but cannot view the still image on the DVD player.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-317398 discloses a technique that allows a user to view both a moving image and a still image on a DVD player. In the disclosed technique, data of the still image previously recorded on the DVD is converted into data identical in format to the data of a moving image (hereinafter referred to as moving image data) in the finalize process. By converting the still image into the moving image, the user can view both the moving image and the still image on the DVD player without the need for a personal computer.